Where have the Imports gone?

In the last decade, I believe we have witnessed the rise and decline of the Sport Compact Car.

The concept of doing more with less has been around for ages, but the rise of the 4 cylinder and other non-V8’s really came into the North American mainstream somewhere around the late 1990s. I suppose movies like the Fast & the Furious (1999) probably were a significant contributor to the pop-culture trend of vehicle modification, true Import purists (and anti-posers) usually shudder at the mention of the F&F series but it did draw in new blood to the hobby of vehicle modification.

I’ll make it known here and now that I am a domestic performance vehicle enthusiast, specifically Late-Model-Domestic-Muscle, but I’m open minded to cars in general, so don’t let that make you think I’m completely biased.

Years ago, when I bought my first car, a clunker 1988 Ford Escort EXP, the world of big exhaust tips and neon underglow was just starting to take off. At that time I thought you basically bought a vehicle and basically how it worked out of the box was what you got. This concept of performance modification (with a few exceptions) was completely alien to me.

In 2003, when I was able to insert myself into the performance hobby, I was quick to note the variety of “performance” vehicles cruising the streets, and as the new owner of a 1995 Mustang GTS it wasn’t lost that domestic performance seemed to be a minority.

I have no idea what the actual ratio was, but it seemed for every domestic performance car you might run across 7 Import “Tuner” cars, that is sport compacts with some degree of modification.

About those modifications,

After all of the hype behind the import tuner cars, I gave them a fair bit of respect, that is, until I actually got to run a few and began to question my perceptions. This is of course from the perspective of a 15 second stock Mustang running 16 & 17 second imports. I came to understand that the typical formula of a sport compact car was generally lightweight, front-wheel drive, four cylinder engines, and typically made less than 200 horsepower peak, and even less torque.  Commonly, most of these tuner cars had only rudimentary and sometimes dubious engine modifications, backed by eye-catching and sometimes counter-productive appearance modification.

Exempting the power adder guys or the very rare max-effort engine builds these cars were quickly considered “easy pickings” for those from my car demographic.

While these Tuner cars were not the fastest thing on the streets or strip, they did create and fill a huge market segment for young and young at heart buyers. Each Japanese manufacturer had at least one model or option catering to that group. The aftermarket was flooded with speed and appearance parts for nearly everything.

Things looked good for the trend of import racer and import showcar, but over the last few driving seasons I have seen a huge decline in Sport Compacts and the like.

So what happened, and where did they all go?

Reflectively, I think a number of things changed against the tuner crowd.

Firstly, as these cars became more numerous and popular, public awareness also increased, with it came additional police and legislative attention.  When under the microscope of the law and enforcement, it can really take the fun out of any hobby.

Secondly, many of the Japanese manufacturers seem to have abandoned this market, gone from the dealership lots are new models of the Celica, Talon/Eclipse, 240SX, Mazda Speed 3 and so on. The remaining Civic Si, 350Z, RX-8, Evo etc are not very cost effective cars to a young buyer.

Third, the rise of the Right-hand-drive. The recent glut of Japanese Domestic Market (JDM) cars to hit North America has really changed the face of Import performance and may have really affected the desirability of the North American counterparts.

Possibly a fourth consideration is the resurgence of the modern muscle car. I have seen a number of car enthusiasts that have switched from Import to Domestic muscle, to summarize them, it’s a matter of low cost and big performance. When you compare Domestic to Import new cars, I believe it’s a very valid consideration.

As much as I’ve heard the term “Ricer” thrown around and the mockery that follows, I think it’s rather unfortunate to see this backslide of the Sport Compact Car continue, because the loss of every “Tuner” car is potentially the loss of another car enthusiast.

So despite the general hatred of the buzzy resonated exhaust tip and the obvious work-in-progress primer of a new “body kit” I still think it’s a shame to see it go.